Sunday, March 18, 2012

Week 8

Week 8

Dear Malcom R. Parks,

I agree with your interest in observing and analyzing
Internet discussion groups and the online world they create because in today’s
generations the majority of people are using the Internet for an array of
reasons varying from communicating, to doing homework, and etcetera.After reading your work on your
two options of whether online relations are shallow, personal, and hostile,
versus being liberated, genuine, personal, and found, it was difficult to
decide which one I leaned more towards.Going into this I definitely agreed with your first option because I
always thought, “how real can relationships be if it’s just through the
Internet?” Yet after reading this I combined what I already assumed about how
people act in computer-mediated communication (CMC) and what I learned from
this and it opened my eyes a little more.I already assumed that people in CMC groups and having the ability to be
anonymous allowed them to act/behave/say nonconforming things or speak whatever
was on their mind, even if it was more blunt or aggressive than what they might
have said if it was a face-to-face (FTF) discussion.When you have that anonymity, it shields you from being
scrutinized and actually allows you to “show” more of yourself through the
discussion groups.CMC also lets
people build relationships in a number of ways all at the same time no matter
how close/far apart you might be, including socializing, (as well as planning
times to meet FTF) working on projects/work online, playing games,
giving/receiving advice/support, and much more. CMC has pros and cons like
everything else in the world, which allows people to argue that you can’t get
personal through CMC or that you could misinterpret a conversation if someone
doesn’t use correct punctuation or gives short one-word answers, but that could
happen in FTF times too, just in FTF communication you are able to see
non-verbal cues… Long story short, people’s relationships will depend on the
availability of technologies and channels that allow people to communicate and
interact.